The present invention relates generally to furniture display and, more particularly to the display of furniture in a room setting that provides the consumer with an improved visual impression of how the displayed furniture would look in a home setting.
Over the past decade and longer, many traditional furniture stores have been replaced by furniture stores having a larger square footage for the display area in order to accommodate the preferences of a wider range of potential purchasers of home furnishings. The newer stores are generally owned by a furniture store chain, of which there are many examples.
Conventional retail furniture stores have been further displaced by combination warehouse-showrooms facilities in which large quantities of furniture are displayed, but generally grouped by type of furniture, e.g., bedroom furniture, living room furniture; dining room furniture, etc. Within the groups of furniture, many of the furniture selections are crowded together, and provide the consumer with little or no idea of how specific furniture items would look in the home. The larger showrooms frequently group particular items of furniture in an artificial room type setting that often represents a maze even to both experienced and casual shoppers. Even in the larger showrooms, it is difficult to show all the different styles and available fabrics for a given type of furniture. Furniture retailers often resort to swatch books to show a consumer the available fabrics and colors.